The present invention is directed to a mobile communications apparatus that is part of a telecommunication network and, in particular, to such a mobile communications apparatus which is adapted to execute computer game programs.
Telecommunication networks have been established for providing a variety of services to network subscribers. Some widely used and well known telecommunication networks provide mobile telephone communication services, such as with cellular telephones. Other telecommunication networks provide services which involve banking operations and electronic bulletin board functions, for example.
It is necessary in at least some instances for such telecommunication networks to provide secure transmissions. For a mobile telephone network, for example, transmissions made from the mobile telephone include secret authorization codes needed to gain access to the service.
One way for providing such secure transmissions is to use a subscriber identification module (xe2x80x9cSIMxe2x80x9d) which can be plugged into or detached from the phone. Data stored in the SIM controls access by the phone to the network services. Recent versions of the SIM include an interpreter of programs written in a high level computer language, such as JAVA. Such a SIM is disclosed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) in its GSM Technical Specification GSM 11.11 of July 1996, Version 5.3.0, which is hereby incorporated by reference. Information on the interpreter, and also on the SIM, is provided in U.S. patent application Serial No. 08/957,512 filed Oct. 24, 1997, which is hereby incorporated by reference. Such prior art mobile telephones and SIMs have so far been focused on performing only the specific tasks involved in telephony.
One object of the present invention is to expand the versatility of a telecommunication network.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a mobile telephone network with capabilities other than telephony.
A further object of the present invention is to use the capabilities available in a SIM plugged into a mobile telephone for executing computer game programs.
These and other objects are attained in accordance with one aspect of the present invention by a method of using a mobile apparatus having a screen, a keyboard and a loudspeaker. The mobile apparatus is provided with a subscriber identification module (SIM). The SIM includes an interpreter of programs written in a computer language. The mobile apparatus is part of a telecommunication network managed by an operator. To perform this method, a game program written in the computer language is loaded into a memory of the SIM, and the game program is interpreted by the interpreter of the SIM. Then, the game program is executed by the mobile apparatus so that the game can be played.